Introduction About Lithium Atoms in Basic Chemistry

There are two primary isotopes of Lithium that can be found in the world and they are Lithium 6 and Lithium 7. Get an introduction about lithium atoms in basic chemistry with help from an experienced educator in this free video clip.

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Video Transcript

Hello, my name is Walter Unglaub and this is introduction about Lithium atoms in basic chemistry. So there are two primary isotopes of Lithium that can be found in the world and they are Lithium 6 and Lithium 7. What this number corresponds to is the atomic mass or the nucleus and Lithium 7 is by far the more abundant isotope in nature. So we can draw a diagrammatic picture of what the atom would look like. We know that it is an alkali metal and that it is number 3 in the periodic table of elements, that means it has three protons and if we are considering Lithium 7 that means that it has to have four neutrons donated by these darker balls. Because we are considering an electrically neutral atom in this case, there's going to be just as many electrons in the atom as there are protons. Since we have three protons, we're going to have two electrons in the first inner shell which is the 1SL orbital so we have 1S2 and then we are going to have a third electron occupy the second orbital outside of the first one. So we have 2S1 and this is the electron configuration for Lithium for both isotopes, the only difference is that Lithium 7 has a fourth neutron inside of it as the number of protons defines the chemical properties and hence the element. In addition to this information, Lithium 7 has a density of approximately .531 grams per centimeters cubed and lies amongst the set of alkali metals in the periodic table. My name is Walter Unglaub and this is introduction about Lithium atoms in basic chemistry.